Investigative Aesthetics: Contemporary Art and Jurisdiction

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Against the backdrop of the documentary turn and the “institutional critique” in the arts of the 1990’s, we can identify new dimensions of detection tied to the restoration of legal status.

The focus of Lisa Stuckey’s project lies on the work of the agency Forensic Architecture, which reconstructs political and ecological crises, and makes them comprehensible through architectural simulation. The practice of investigation leads to a transformation of artistic habitus: from artist-as-ethnographer (Foster) and artist-as-analyst (Carson) to artist-as-detective. It translates art and jurisdictionto each other, creating a superordinate level of critical catenation. In this context, she also considers works of two other positions: the media artist Constanze Ruhm and the poet NourbeSe Philip. A comprehensive art-theoretical analysis of “Investigative Aesthetics” draws attention to a changing media use as both aesthetic and structural moment.

CV

Lisa Stuckey is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In her research project, she examines investigative aesthetics in the work of Forensic Architecture, Constanze Ruhm, and NourbeSe Philip on a transdisciplinary level.She studied Art and Communication (focus: Art Theory, 2009–2015) and Art and Media (since 2014) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Royal Institute of Art Stockholm. She works as an independent curator. Projects include Prisoners of Venus. A Video Exhibition (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2016), Posthuman Complicities (xhibit, 2017), I hear the waters’ song (mumok cinema, 2017), and Nor Heat Nor Gloom Of Night (Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles, 2018). Guest lectures: Brut Künstlerhaus, Volksbühne Berlin, Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies, and Literaturhaus Wien.

Publications

Publikationen (u. a.): „Uncanny Fragment / Spectral Evidence. In Investigationen von Constanze Ruhm und Forensic Architecture“, in: Thomas Ballhausen, Robert Huez (Hg.), Der Zeitungsausschnitt. Wien (im Erscheinen); "From the ‘Artist as Ethnographer’ to the Artist-as-Detective", in: Blog des IFK, Januar 2019, www.ifk.ac.at; “Haunting Agents of Justice – Rezension über Johanna Braun: All-American-Gothic Girl”, in: Ulrike Kadi, August Ruhs, Karl Stockreiter, Gerhard Zenaty (Hg.), texte.psychoanalyse.ästhetik.kulturkritik, Heft 2 / 2018, S. 106–110; „Poeto-forensische Ozeanographie. Ästhetik der Trauer in Left-to-Die Boat (Forensic Architecture) und Zong! (NourbeSe Philip)“, in: all-over. Magazin für Kunst und Ästhetik, Ausgabe #13, November 2017, S. 29–37; „Haunted by last season’s video letters. Amateur films performing spectrality“, in: Journal for Artistic Research, JAR # 12 (2016); „Mater Mumie Materie. Gedächtnisschwäche im Mythos und die Antizipation des Posthumanismus“, in: Johanna Braun (Hg.), Beschwörungsrituale. An Elisabeth von Samsonow, Wien 2016, S. 161–168.